ghost ship 2: it's a rat-eat-rat world.
Jan. 23rd, 2014 11:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rmdSometimes, there are ghost ships on the oceans - vessels that have been ripped away from their moorings by a tsunami, or just found abandoned drifting (or in the case of the Mary Celeste, abandoned but still under sail).
But right now, there is a ship - the Lyubov Orlova, which used to be a cruise ship - drifting across the Atlantic. Not all of its lifeboat EPIRBs have triggered, so some of the lifeboats (and presumably the rest of the main vessel) are above the waterline. It appears to be drifting towards the UK, and it is likely full of cannibalistic rats.
But right now, there is a ship - the Lyubov Orlova, which used to be a cruise ship - drifting across the Atlantic. Not all of its lifeboat EPIRBs have triggered, so some of the lifeboats (and presumably the rest of the main vessel) are above the waterline. It appears to be drifting towards the UK, and it is likely full of cannibalistic rats.
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Date: 2014-01-23 04:51 pm (UTC)a story ideahorrifying.no subject
Date: 2014-01-23 04:57 pm (UTC)Also, if we leave the ship alone for a couple of million years, the rats will evolve into sentient civilized critters, like Cat on Red Dwarf.
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Date: 2014-01-23 05:36 pm (UTC)But it seems like a few hundred isn't exactly "full" for a ship that size. And I'd expect the number has been getting progressively smaller, if there's no actual food on board. The few remaining may be really, really hungry, but I'd also expect they'd be really, really weak.
Or do rats go "bad"? As in, now that they're cannibals, they've crossed the Rat Moral Event Horizon and they'll never be able to integrate properly into rat communities? I mean, if this ship should happen to hit shore somewhere and the rats get out, are they going to be that much different from the rats that are already there, i.e., once they find a bit of food and settle down?
(ok, yes, it'll suck if it hits shore in a place where rats were eradicated centuries ago, but I thought the UK and Ireland mostly already have rats).
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Date: 2014-01-23 05:51 pm (UTC)In the rat-infested cinema of my imagination, they've somehow managed to find a giant supply of grain and so the ship is positively *teeming* with rats. About like things starting at 1:04 in this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=IOwinLWrEIw#t=63?).
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Date: 2014-01-23 06:22 pm (UTC)Also if this were actually true, seems to me you'd want to create bunches of cannibal rats, release them into, say, New York, so that they can go down into the sewers and eat all of the other rats (file under: Reasons I Should Not Be an Urban Planner, Part XVI)
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Date: 2014-01-23 06:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-23 06:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-23 06:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-23 07:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-23 07:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-23 07:52 pm (UTC)I would assume that if it went down in the interval, the EPIRBs on the remaining lifeboats would trigger, though. Maybe the rats ate the EPIRBs.
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Date: 2014-01-23 10:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-24 04:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-24 10:16 am (UTC)Damn
Date: 2014-01-26 05:05 am (UTC)http://www.policymic.com/articles/80017/a-ghost-ship-full-of-cannibal-rats-was-reported-near-britain-but-here-s-the-real-story
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Date: 2014-02-09 05:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-09 05:49 pm (UTC)